Friday, May 7, 2010

Things I love Thursday: Techno geek edition

So I've been thinking about this post for a while. It occurs to people that I'm online a lot - mostly because I'm online a lot. A Facebook status update here. A Twitter tweet there. An all-too occassional blog post. And it's possible that some of you wonder why. Why is Shan online so much? Is her 'real life' not engaging enough? Does she not have enough 'real' people in her life? Is she bored? Is her iPhone really that much cooler than a book?

Heck no. But let me explain.

I love people. All people. Or at least, many many people. And the reason I go online is to connect with people. Different people in different spots at different times. And also, to have people connect with me.

Exhibit A: http://www.scwinks.blogspot.com/I have been blogging for over 7 years (though you can't really tell anymore since Squarespace deleted my old blog and I haven't figured out how to import my previous posts here). I blog because I call myself a writer and wasn't writing very often. Now I blog. I'm still not publishing much, but at least I am committing words to some form of publicly consumable format and keeping the dream alive. By however tenuous a lifeline. I blog so you have access to the writerly part of me.

Exhibit B: FacebookFor a while Facebook was my joy. I got obsessed. I couldn't go more than an hour without seeing who said what and adding my supposed witicisms to the fray. It is not Facebook that matters to me though. On Facebook I am connected to almost 400 people who I had already met in 'real life' many of whom I'd lost any contact with and missed dearly. Facebook allows me to know that my elementary school best friend is now living in Ottawa and adjusting to a new city, to share with her about motherhood ups and downs, and to watch her young daughter grow. It also allows me to giggle at videos of my dear baby nephew, and to keep tabs on all my various cousins.

Exhibit C: http://twitter.com/scwinkAh, Twitter, my latest buffet of connectivity. What I love about Twitter is that on any day I can connect with global leaders in the writing, communications, mothering, and entertainment worlds. I have networked with authors, artists, big-time bloggers and even Erica Ehm. And they have connected with me. Every time I go on Twitter a stranger contributes to my life and learning. Where else can you say that?

And now, I have an iPhone. Yes, it is in my hot little hands a lot of the time. And no, I'm not playing Sudoku or Popping Blowfish (at least, I'm MOSTLY not doing that). I got my iPhone because it allows me to blog/face/tweet/text and call anyone anywhere at anytime.

If that makes me a geek, so be it. But now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I'm more of a people geek than a techno geek.